consciousness the affirmation, 'Thou art there,' was, by
that affirmation, accepted as the doing of a god. But neither at this
stage, nor for long after, is there any myth. The being, whose
presence is thus affirmed, has at first no name: his personality is of
the faintest, his individuality, the vaguest. Mythology does not begin
until the question is put, 'Why has the god done this thing?' A myth
consists, or originally consisted, of the reason which was found and
adopted by the common consciousness as the reason why the god did what
he did do. It is in this sense that myths are aetiological. The
imagination which produces them is, in a sense, a 'scientific
imagination.' It works within limits. The data on which it works are
that this thing was done, or is done, by this god; and the problem set
to the mythological imagination is, 'Why did he, or does he, do it?'
The stories which were invented to answer this question constituted
mythology; and the fact that myths were invented for the purpose of
answering this question distinguishes them from stories in the
invention of which the imagination was not subject to restriction, was
not tied down to this god and to this action of his, and was not
limited to the sole task of imagining an answer to the question, 'Why
did he do it?' All myths are narratives, but not all narratives are
myths. Some narratives have men alone for their heroes. They are
imaginative but not mythological. Some narratives are about gods and
what they did. Their purpose is to explain why the gods did what they
did do, and those narratives are mythological.

It may, perhaps, seem that the imagination of early man would from the
first be set to work to invent myths in answer to the question, 'Why
did the god do this thing?' But, as a matter of fact, man can get on
for a long time without mythology. A striking instance of this is
afforded by the _di indigites_ of Italy. Over everything man did, or
suffered, from his birth to his death, one of these gods or goddesses
presided. The Deus Vagitanus opened the lips of the new-born infant
when it uttered its first cry; the Dea Ossipago made the growing
child's bones stout and strong; the Deus Locutius made it speak
clearly; the goddess Viriplaca restored harmony between husband and
wife who had quarrelled; the Dea Orbona closed a man's eyes at death.
These _di indigites_ had shrines and received sacrifices. They were
distinguished into gods and goddesses. Their